Sunday, September 19, 2010

Communion and Rebirth

In "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster, Chapter 2 talks about communion and chapter 18 talks about rebirth.

A few days ago in AP English, we read chapter 8 of "The Horse Dealer's Daughter" by D.H. Lawrence and the book applies perfectly with these two chapters of "How to Read Literature like a Professor."

"Sometimes a meal is just a meal and eating with others is simply eating with others. More often than not, though, it's not. Whenever people eat or drink together, it's communion." In communion, however, some people choose to not participate like Mabel in "The Horse Dealer's Daughter." She was there physically but not apart of the conversation between her brothers. Moreover, it showed that Mabel's brothers did not care about her by the way they talked about her appearance. They said that the "fixity of her face" was that of a bull-dog.

In chapter 18, it talks about people entering water- some never to return and others to survive. "When writer's baptize a character, they mean death, rebirth, or new identity." In "The Horse Dealer's Daughter", Mabel wasn't happy at all. She wanted something new, she wanted to be happy, she wanted a "rebirth", and that is exactly what happened. Almost drowning in the water, she was saved by the doctor and they fell in love. As I said in the post before this, the pond is used as a symbol of rebirth for both characters- a rebirth of love and happiness. They entered the "dead water" and came out with a "relief to be out of the clutches of the pond."